“No one presumes to teach an art till he has first, with intent meditation, learnt it…”

No one presumes to teach an art till he has first, with intent meditation, learnt it. What rashness is it, then, for the unskilful to assume pastoral authority, since the government of souls is the art of arts!

Gregory I · The Book of Pastoral Rule · NPNF2 XII, Pastoral Rule, Part I

Ars est artium regimen animarum. The opening of the book every medieval bishop was handed at his consecration, and the tag that became the West’s standard name for the cure of souls. Alfred had it translated into English; Hincmar kept a copy beside the Gospels at the consecration of the kings of France.